Not Your Grandma’s Baby Shower

If you’ve been a reader for a bit, you likely know that I have a thing about intergenerational relationships. Research increasingly points to this wonderful dynamic of mixing across the ages as a key to lifelong faith for adolescents. What’s more, any of us in the older generations (doesn’t matter how much older) benefit as well. And when you dive in, well, here’s what can happen.

The Backstory

When I started dating my husband, I was serving at our church, running the 4-6th grade programs. Naturally, I put him to work for me, so the kids knew us both pretty well.

Once we were engaged, two of our students, now in 7th grade, offered their help as wedding planners.

“We see black!” they’d said.

Veto.

I can’t remember now if we offered or they called dibs, but we agreed instead to let them plan the baby shower someday.

And that is how, six years later, our first shower was run by two 18 year old boys.

Meet Sean and Jarrett, the Party Planning Committee.

If they weren’t about to start college, I’d tell you to get on the phone and hire them for your next event. Right. Now.

The Process

What’s it like, working with The Party Planning Committee? Let me share with you, friends.

They checked in with me a couple times along the way, since they’d never, you know, been to a baby shower. I had also given them 2 demands:

No Shower Games. Games=good. Shower games=no go.

I wanted a professional photographer. Great Britain photography, to be exact, run by 10-year-old Britain, who charges $10 an event.

Guests rubbing my feet? Veto. Curtis rubbing my feet? I thought that was impossible as well. But my calves cramped this week and he came through like a champ.

Leaving my child’s name up to our friends? I love them, but I also know them. It’s these people:

Not happening.

Check-in #2, a few days prior, focuses on the timeline and decor. Highlight:

Funny or creepy? They’re centerpieces, by the way.

I got smidge nervous.

No need. The whole thing was amazing.

The Party

There was a lovely lunch, which included the best chinese chicken salad I’ve ever had.

And the games. Oh the games.

Baby bowling. How many strikes can you get in 10 throws?

I was pretty good at it.

I had a streak going, but couldn’t hold on.

Diaper Corn Hole. How many diapers can you successfully toss to the bucket in 8 throws?

Speed Diapering. 1 doll, 1 diaper, 1 stopwatch. Go.

One thing that was especially great about the games was that you could play as you wished, and if you did well, you added your numbers to a leader board. So people could visit and eat, then step out to try when they were up for it. This was especially important since it was a ba-jillion degrees outside that day. But even if that weren’t the case, I thought it was a great way to weave games into a shower.

Another component to the games was the medal ceremony, where the top three contestants stood on the podium to receive prizes.

The top baby bowlers. Gold received a Starbucks card, Silver a centerpiece, and Bronze a diaper.

Top speed diaperers. Tori-babysitter extraordinare- won gold with 5 seconds flat. Holly-mom of 3- (not pictured) won silver, behind by only tenths of a second. Curtis won bronze, no where near those two ladies…yet faster than me. I think this means something for our future.

Best diaper tossers. That game was surprisingly hard.

The Reveal

At the end of the afternoon, our hosts brought folks together for the big gender reveal. Balloons and confetti fell from the sky, and down dropped the only boy doll they could find.

The doll was supposed to float from a plastic bag parachute. The parachute failed. It thunked down instead. Oh well.

There were other great details that brought it all together perfectly–‘fun facts’ on the wall, including the largest baby ever birthed and the longest pregnancy of all time; Guess That Kid with famous faces; Sour Patch Kids on the tables; insanely good desserts; a ‘baby’ soundtrack that included Brittany Spears, Amy Grant, and Justin Bieber.